Wall guards and corner guards don’t make for particularly compelling
architecture by themselves. Most people don’t pay attention to them.
They are an element in hospitals and offices, particularly where there is
high traffic, to protect the walls from damage. And they are often made
of PVC plastics.

Rather than being manufactured with PVC plastic, Arden Architectural
Specialties has introduced a line of wall-and
corner-guards that is made from corn-based biopolymers. Not only does
this reduce the toxic byproducts of vinyl manufacture, and require less
energy overall for the manufacture, but the end product is also stronger
and more damage resistant, and is easy to recycle at the end of it’s life.

Finding yet another non-food use for corn is not without its drawbacks.
But finding a substitute for PVC and helping to reduce dioxin pollution
are a positive step that EcoGeeks are in favor of. We’re hoping this is just the beginning of this trend. Bio-plastics should be showing up in everything from pipes to food packaging in the near future.